Lil' Sister
by Stembuk
Summary: A continuation from my previous 'Secret Feelings'.
1. Chapter 1

_My Gods! Could it be? An actually sequel that's more than a page long?_

_But first, some ground notes. Because this is my take on the Thunderbirds universe, there's going to be a few minor tweaks and changes. One of the most major ones, I guess, is that I'm mixing and matching the Thunderbird craft from the series and movie – TB's 1, 2 and 3 are Series versions, whilst TB's 4&5 are movie versions. Mostly because I really like the slimmer design of TB5, with the external ring that seems to be a giant antenna itself, and also TB4 – to me, the movie version seems more like a rescue sub than the series version, which always looked like it should be squished by water pressure at any great depth._

_I've also decided to throw the automatic camera detector out the window,as I couldn't figure out a reasonable explanation as to how it works. Instead, pictures of the TB craft do exist, but the craft themselves contain highly advanced stealth systems to prevent tracking._

_As for the uniforms the boys wear,I gave them an overhaul. Now, they consist of a tight fitting padded and armored bodysuit, with the sash and belt fixed into it. There's an 'IR' badge – like on the hats – on the left upper arm, and another hand-on-globe logo patch on the right upper arm. The suits have built in knee and elbow pads. _

_Instead of the little peaked caps, the guys now wear full faced crash style helmets, each with a built in radio link, heads up display and torch. The helmets contain a limited ten minute air supply._

_An optional extra for the uniforms is a removable utility belt. Whilst this belt has a gun holster, it does not hold a gun – instead, it contains a small power generator in a gun handle shape, with optional snap on work units, such as a drill, clamps, laser cutter or a small pair of the jaws of life._

_The family also don't call each other by name during operations – instead, Scott is Rescue One, Virgil Rescue Two, Alan Rescue Three, Gordon Rescue Four and John Rescue Five. Tracy Island is known as Rescue Command or Rescue Control, and Jeff is Rescue Commander._

_Brains is still... Brains._


	2. Chapter 2

Often, if he couldn't sleep, John would idly scan the lesser used radio frequencies, finding the static hissing between uses – coupled with the random strange conversations and more often than not religious preaching – oddly relaxing.

Occasionally, he would come across a mention of International Rescue, which would never fail to get his attention. After all, it was kinda nice to hear about your family over the airwaves, (space) even if it was in a roundabout way and indirect. It also amused him no end to listen to the many theories about who they were. Some were convinced that they were a secret federal agency, some thought they were glory hounds who caused the disasters themselves, and some still swore that International Rescue didn't actually exist but were some form of mass hallucination.

A small but incredibly stubborn group insisted that 'The Saviors', as they called them, were benevolent aliens, here to show mankind the way they should be evolving.

That one always made John crease over in laughter. He really should let Alan know about that group the next time he was up here. Though... knowing Alan... he'd probably start talking back to them...

John spared a chuckle at that thought as he danced his slim, manicured fingers over the radio tuner. It was the wrong night for that group – they usually met twice a month on a Saturday – but somebody should be around someplace - -

"Help! Help! Can somebody hear me? Please? I need some help!"

The voice snapped John to full alertness instantly, grabbing his remote microphone with his left hand as his right flicked the switch to record and locate the source of the incoming transmission.

"It's my little sister! My lil' sister has fallen down a hole and, and, she can't get out and I can't reach her and I don't know what to do! Somebody please help!"

A soft chime told John that the weak transmission's source had been located. He'd have to bounce his signal off one of the other Tracey Communications satellites, but that's what they were there for. A few quick keystrokes and John had broken into the pleader's frequency.

"This is International Rescue. I repeat, this is International Rescue responding to you request for emergency assistance. Can you give us more information?"

"It's my little sister! We were running in the fields behind the house – we shouldn't be but she ran out of the the house – and she fell down a hole and I can't get her out and now she's stopped crying and I'm scared! Please help me!"

"We will. I just need to get some questions first. What's your name?"

"M – Mary"

"How old are you, Mary?"

"Seven and a half."

"What's your sister's name?"

"Emily."

"And how old is she?"

"Almost three."

"Where are your parents, Mary?"

"Mommy's visiting Nanna and Daddy had to go to get some wood for the fence where the bull broke out."

"How long has Emily been stuck down the hole, Mary?"

"From when the little hand was on two and a bit and it's on nearly four now. "

"Have you called anybody else yet?"

"No. Daddy said to only use the radio in an emergency and I thought maybe I could reach her to pull her out but I couldn't see her so I came back to ask for help and you answered and you said you would."

" Yes, we will, Mary. We know where you are and should be with you soon. Right now, I need you to go to the hole where Emily is and put a sheet or tablecloth near it so we know where to find it, then keep talking to Emily – even if she doesn't answer back – until we get there, okay?"

"Okay. Will you be long?"

"About a half hour, I think, before the Thunderbird One reaches you. Go now, Mary."

"Y-yes, sir!"

There was the thunk of a dropped handset followed by the patter of small running feet as John swung his chair around to the dedicated Tracy Island video link and punched the emergency signal.

"International Rescue Control – go ahead, John." He blinked for a moment at the image of Gordon sitting behind his father's desk, then remembered that it was the middle of the night down there and, once again, it seemed his younger brother had drawn the graveyard shift.


	3. Chapter 3

"We have a small child trapped down what appears to be a disused well or sinkhole. Only her older sister is around. She says that the child's been trapped for up to two hours and appears to have stopped crying."

Gordon nodded and pressed the emergency alarm, causing an earsplitting siren to echo through out the villa. He really shouldn't have, but he took a few moments to enjoy the perverse pleasure over the effect that the sudden waking would have on the soundly sleeping others.

So he was, naturally, very surprised when Scott and Brains hurriedly entered from the balcony.

Holding hands.

Pushing that thought waaaaaay to the back of his mind, Gordon nodded towards the vidlink. "John'll brief you when you're airborne, Scott. We have a minor trapped down a well shaft or something similar."

Scott nodded and confidently strode over to place his back against the picture that Virgil had once painted whilst in a stroppy mood. Reaching up, he tugged the twin lamps forwards and with a slight whine of electric motors he rotated out of sight into Thunderbird One's launch bay.

Gordon swore he saw Scott wink at Brains as he disappeared, and Brains half wave back. He very firmly decided not to ask.

Over the course of the next minute and a half, and in various states of dress, the rest of the Tracy clan arrived in the lounge.

Jeff Tracy, with his open robe billowing out behind him like a cape, barreled in first and evicted Gordon from his chair and dropped into it, immediately getting a mission brief from his eldest son. Alan was only just behind him. Virgil trailed in about a half minute later, looking like his usual zombified morning self, cradling a mug of espresso from the machine in his room that Brains had rigged up to the emergency klaxon.

You could drop a pod from Thunderbird Two onto Virgil's toes before he had his wakeup caffeine and he wouldn't notice.

" -- the, ah, the topography charts we have for the area don't show a strata makeup suitable for the Mole, and I'd be worried about the vibration it would cause anyways, Mr Tracy," Brains was saying to Jeff. "I'd recommend using the Vertical Borer to dig down a parallel well, then cut across to the original shaft and coming through just below the, ah, that is, the trapped... child..." He trailed off as the villa shuddered slightly and a roar announced the departure of International Rescues' Scout craft. Brains stood gazing after it with a smile on his lips.

Nope, Gordon told hisself. you really, really don't want to ask...


	4. Chapter 4

_**Lil' Sister part three**_

Rescues, he'd had drummed into him over and over from both his father and his short duty tour in the Air Force's Rescue Units, were always serious business. No room for playing or messing about either on site or on the way there – you took the time to mentally prepare yourself for whatever might be about to happen, or you may as well not bother going in the first place.

Scott knew this. Believed it with every fiber of his being, from the current split ends of his hair to his in need of a cut toenails. It had taken practice and time, but eventually he had developed the ability to shut any distraction away into a room inside his mind, only letting it out when the mission was over.

Very occasionally, though, a thought would fight its way out.

Which was why, without really noticing it, Scott was humming as he flew Thunderbird One screaming over farmland towards the Danger Zone. It had been twenty-two and one half minutes since the silver rocket had been launched, and he was, by his best estimate, another five to seven minutes from the rescue area. Plus maybe another five to find the exact location and a suitable landing zone for both his 'Bird and Virgil's.

H'mmm. Scott wondered if Virgil would be bringing Brains along with him, as well as Gordon. The family had decided recently that Thunderbird Two was always to be double manned on missions. Considering that Gordon only really got to go on the few water rescues they were called out to, he had seemed the most logical choice to be the second crew member aboard. Brains, for reasons of his own, had also started to take a more active role in the field, rather than just relay information from Rescue Command.

A fond smile flickered over Scott's lips at the thought of the thin, nervous engineer. It had taken long enough to admit to his self his preferences, and then he'd had to to keep them secret whilst serving. It wasn't that it was illegal, but it was still frowned upon. People and ideas take much longer to chance than rules and regulations. Oddly, it was the couple of years spent in that classified work where he had found acceptance – maybe because the defense work there was so intense, nobody cared what their partner's sexual preference was, just so long as they could be trusted to watch one another's backs.

A rapid beeping let him know that Thunderbird One had arrived at the site. Scott straightened and cut power to the engines, letting her lower to within twenty-five or so meters of the ground, landing gear lowered. Switching over to the AntiGrav Drive system, he pivoted her around in a circle whilst he looked for the signal blanket the girl was supposed to have placed on the ground --

A bright red flapping motion attracted his attention, and proved to be tablecloth wafting in the wind. A closer look revealed a small girl with matching hair jumping up and down and waving at him. Figuring that she had to be the one who sent the call, he allowed his 'Bird to gently drop the rest of the way down, landing with a soft thump as he felt her sink slightly into the topsoil. Scott's strong hands and fingers made a series of practiced motions, shutting the engines down, starting up the security systems and opening the small cargo hold containing, amongst other things, the mobile control console and his hoverbike.

The entry hatch on what was now the floor of the cockpit snapped open and his chair pivoted down to lower him. Unbuckling himself, Scott stepped aside to let it swing back up and double checked to ensure the hatch shut itself. He felt a small hand grasp his and tug.

'This way, mister! She's over this way!' Scott allowed his self to be guided at a half run by the girl – what was her name, Mary? Carey? Something like that – to the well where her sister had fallen.

Dropping to his knees, and mentally thanking Brains for the umpteenth time for designing uniforms with built in kneepads, Scott pulled a torch from his belt and tried to get a view down the hole. Leaning forwards he tried to angle both so he could see clearly, but the diameter was too small to let him do so. Flipping his visor open, he lent further down and put his ear to the shaft.

Scott listened carefully for a few moments, the tried shouting down the hole. A faint sobbing, just at the edge of hearing, was all the response he got. He crouched back on his heels and looked at the girl.

'Okay, then. I can't see her, so I'm going to get one of our really small cameras and let that fly down to get a better look. Thunderbird Two and the rescue equipment should be hear soon, and then it won't take long at all to get her out, okay?' Now that Scott finally had a chance to look at Mary properly, he could see that her eyes were reddened and puffy, like she'd been crying constantly for a while – which, he guessed, wasn't far from the truth. If it had been him up here, and one of his brothers down a hole at his age – well, he figured he'ld be just as upset as she was. Reaching out to Mary, he rested a hand on her skinny little shoulder and smiled reassuringly.

'Don't worry, Mary. We'll get her out safely, and then the two of you'll be back to running through the fields in no time.' He ruffled her hair and then drew his hand back in to tap commands into his wrist unit, then made himself relatively comfortable as close to the hole as he could.

Besides him, Mary wormed her way under his arm and lent against his leg.


End file.
